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Shuhei Yoshida answers your PS Vita questions

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Your queries on what the future holds for PlayStation Vita are answered by the president of SCE Worldwide Studios.

What happens during a normal working day for you? (phillen9)

In the morning in bed, I check Twitter and re-tweet any good articles or comments about PlayStation. During my commute, I use PlayStation Vita on the bus and also catch up with podcasts about games and gadgets. Once I get to the office, I check emails and attend meetings with the hardware group, studios or marketing. I'll also try the latest versions of our titles in development and keep up with trailers of new games on the Internet.

I spend between a quarter and a third of my time outside Japan, visiting studios and industry events. At home, I play games with my daughters on PS Vita and PlayStation 3.

How will PS Vita compete with ever evolving tablet devices in the future? (Aquamaler)

By providing uncompromised gaming with dual analog sticks and action buttons, new ways for gamers to interact, high production values and full PlayStation Network integration as well as social connectivity. In addition, SCE Worldwide Studios will continue to provide many exclusive titles and experiences on PS Vita.

With games like Gravity Rush being unique to PS Vita, how do you see the system changing the way we look at portable gaming? (Acteon)

Gravity Rush was created from the ground up to take advantage of the unique capabilities of PS Vita, and hopefully people will start to view portable gaming on PS Vita not as watered down versions of console games, but as exciting new experiences that are not available anywhere else, be it on smartphones, tablets or even home consoles.

With the inclusion of a host of new features, we have seen developers create exciting new ways of interacting with games. What has been your favourite use of these features so far? (DeuceDeckard)

I like the many games that place context-sensitive buttons on the touchscreen within easy reach of my thumbs. As far as the rear touch pad goes, shot targeting in EA SPORTS FIFA Football is brilliant, and the stretching and squashing mechanism in TOUCH MY KATAMARI is very fun to use.

Regarding the use of motion sensors, the physics manipulation in Gravity Rush and sniper aim control in Uncharted: Golden Abyss are amazing features. And when it comes to the front and rear cameras, I really enjoy the puzzles in Uncharted: Golden Abyss which Nathan Drake solves by taking photos and the augmented reality games available to download free from PlayStation Store.

I also get a kick from sending a photo of my face to my rivals when I win an online race in WipEout 2048.

How do you see factors like GPS affecting the way we play PS Vita games online? (Laserbrain)

With many games using the functions provided by the revolutionary service "near", GPS - as part of the location data acquisition service on PS Vita - will add another layer to games. People can express where they are and what games they are playing at the touch of a button.

What was the thinking behind "near"? It's a great service for social gaming. (Quaser34)

We wanted to help people to find each other, and find new games, applications and special in-game items based on where they are. The service also provides an easy mechanism for all PS Vita titles to use location data as an innovative social feature. For instance, the Black Market mode in Uncharted: Golden Abyss lets you trade rare treasures with other nearby PS Vita users.

I hope it encourages people to carry their PS Vita systems with them to see what's hot in different places.

Like many gamers, I would like to know how and why you came up with the idea for the rear touch pad? (Killerbeeny)

It was originally proposed by the hardware group of SCEI. After our teams experimented with it, we found lots of interesting uses for it so we decided it was natural to use it for PS Vita. I'm thrilled to see it turn out to be one of the standout features of the system - and I feel we are just scratching the surface of the potential of the rear touch pad.

What are your thoughts on what the future of touchscreen technology might bring for PS Vita? (Markazzz)

PS Vita developers around the world will come up with unique, direct and tactile ideas that make great use of both the touchscreen and the rear touch pad. A great sneak preview of where we might be headed is in one of the mini-games in Little Deviants, in which you pinch a Deviant from both sides of the screen and shoot it like a slingshot.

Augmented reality offers many creative possibilities – how do you see this being integrated into future games? (Squanto666)

I think many games will use AR to let players see game characters superimposed onto a real-life setting. You can already customise game scenes in Reality Fighters, while you're able to snap your own backgrounds in Everybody's Golf. Combinations of AR, location data and network services will be explored for some really futuristic ideas.

Technology is advancing so fast, where do you see PlayStation in ten years' time? (puccaa91)

Hopefully in ten years, PlayStation will be on any electronics device that has a screen, a processor and some kind of input system, and they'll all connect with one another.

To find out more about how the ideas outlined by Shuhei will help PS Vita evolve, make sure you keep an eye on au.playstation.com and PlayStation.Blog.

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